Importing existing passwd and group file to aix 3.1

[Bob Ware 209 Green C 2733987]

In article <532 at texhrc.UUCP> ldm at texhrc.UUCP (Lyle Meier) writes:
>
> We have aquired an rs6000. We would like to be able to copy our existing
> password file over to the system and have it work. (We distribute a 
...
> If one creates a user using SMIT how can one set the uid for the user
> short of going thru the change user mechanism?

We recently worked through similar problems.  (Just met with IBM people
today and made them aware of the problems.)

There is no way to set the uid short of the chuser program (or smit). 
The easiest way to transfer users from a non-RS/6000 system is to
write shell a script that will extract the informatin from the old
passwd file and then use mkuser, chuser, etc to create the accounts.
The encrypted password fields will work ok, but must be added to
/etc/secuity/passwd manually, or with a shell script (there is no 
AIX utility to do it on a batch of accounts).

We have a system with a central user data base that contains a record
for each user on campus that is allowed to have a login on general
campus machines.  Local software reads that data base and creates
an account on the RS/6000 when the person logs in as 'newuser' and 
supplies requested information.  The software basically does system
calls to execute programs like chuser to set up the account.  

If you are adding a large number of users, watch out for the /etc/group
file.  Each user MUST be in a named group, but you may not be able to
put them all in the same named group.  The system gets real sick
when a line in /etc/group execeeds 4096 bytes in length (it happened here),
so we had to create a number of groups and distribute the users among them.

Good luck.

Bob Ware, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, Co 80401, USA
(303) 273-3987
bware at slate.mines.colorado.edu bware at mines.colorado.edu bware at mines.bitnet
-- 
Bob Ware, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, Co 80401, USA
(303) 273-3987
bware at mines.colorado.edu bware at mines.bitnet isis!csm9a!bware